What can happen if preserve owners make the rules

At one Indiana high-fence operation, deer - some ill or appearing drugged - were hunted in what prosecutors called 'killing pens.' Today, laws like those that sent the owner to prison are under assault in many states.

3:17 AM,
Apr. 2, 2014

Russ Bellar, who once ran a hunting preserve near Peru, Ind., agreed to plead guilty to violating a federal game law and two counts of conspiracy in 2005. He was sent to a federal prison for nine months and agreed to pay $575,000, but he maintains he owned the deer and should have been able to do what he wanted with them

Written by

Ryan Sabalow
ryan.sabalow@indystar.com

For seven days in January 2005, a jury in a federal courtroom heard tales from a now-notorious Indiana hunting preserve of deer being drugged and even a sick deer propped up in a 1-acre pen so a hunter could shoot a $15,000 trophy.

Jurors heard testimony from an outdoor television celebrity, a corporate CEO, a country music star and an ex-NFL quarterback, some of whom paid substantial sums to shoot deer in enclosures so small that prosecutors dubbed them "killing pens." One shot his deer only minutes after it was released from a trailer.